SAAN has established contacts to over 500 key individuals in Australia and Switzerland. These include university and business contacts as well as national and state government representatives.

In 2009, SAAN was represented at the annual scientific meeting of the Swiss Societies of Experimental Biology (Interlaken, Switzerland), and in collaboration with DIIRD, organized the event 'Swiss-Australian Biotechnology: The Cytopia and Novartis Example' and hosted a presentation by Prof Susan Gasser, Director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel.

In Victoria, SAAN has successfully organized lectures with the Victorian State Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development and universities (University of Melbourne, Monash and Swinburne) and held events at the Australian Synchrotron, the State Library of Victoria and the Royal Society of Victoria. Guest speakers included Prof John Stocker (Foursight Pty Ltd, previous Head R&D Roche, Basel), Professor Denis Monard (President Swiss Academy of Sciences), Prof Andreas Strasser, WEHI. In 2011, SAAN has also co-organised the Swiss Research Day at the University of Melbourne with the keynote speaker Prof Gerhard Schmitt, ETHZ and Director of the ETH Future Cities Lab in Singapore. The event showcased Swiss research strenghts and Melbourne-Swiss ties. As a follow-up, a delegation headed by University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis is heading to Switzerland in February.

In Queensland, SAAN has played a crucial role in facilitating a close relationship between the University of Queensland and the University of Zurich (in biomedical sciences) and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel. Both partnerships have been supported with commonly held and SAAN-organised symposia in Brisbane earlier in 2011. 

SAAN has also organised several lectures in New South Wales at the University of Sydney, in Perth at the University of Western Australia and in Adelaide at the University of South Australia.

What is more, SAAN's vision has been presented to the CEOs of the National Health & Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council , Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and the Australian Academy of Science.

Recently, SAAN has extended its reach to Switzerland and is currently building-up its presence there. The inaugural SAAN Switzerland event took place on the 1st of June 2011 and featured the keynote lecture of Prof Marcel Tanner, Director of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel.